


Your Heart Is Your Masterpiece

by pensversusswords



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Minor Injuries, Non-Graphic Violence, Non-Sexual Kink, Pining, Size Kink, Strength Kink, Submissive Shiro (implied)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-08-09 20:58:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7816999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pensversusswords/pseuds/pensversusswords
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The five times Allura surprises Shiro with her Altean abilities, and the one time he surprises her. </p><p>Or, the one where Shiro really likes it when Allura is taller than him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Heart Is Your Masterpiece

**Author's Note:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Title from "I'll Keep You Safe" by Sleeping at Last.

 

 

 

  
_you are an artist_  
_and your heart is your masterpiece_  
_and i’ll keep it safe_

_i'll keep you safe, sleeping at last_

 

**1.**

 

That first time that Allura spontaneously grows a couple feet at will, the only thought that comes into Shiro’s mind is; “well that’s just not fair”.

Shiro still doesn’t know Allura very well; she’s fierce and beautiful and her face appears in some of his nicer dreams—rare as they may be—but so far he has been content with admiring her from afar. She’s a leader, she’s grieving, she’s a _princess._ There are countless reasons why he shouldn’t approach her with his affections.

Every time he thinks that he’s all caught up with how amazing she is, she does something that makes him feel like the moment that one time he got shot with a blaster in the chest; the pain didn’t start right away. First, the force of it knocked him backwards, and what followed was a pressure that pushed heavily on his chest, near his heart, with a steadily growing warmth.

That’s what it feels like every time Allura does—well, almost anything. When she smiles at him, when she squeezes his shoulder after a particularly difficult battle, when she tells him earnestly that he did a good job.

When she shows them that she has the ability to grow a couple feet whenever she feels like it.

It strikes him in the chest with an ache of longing and want, and honestly sometimes he’s surprised the impact doesn’t send him to his knees.  

He stares with wide eyes while Pidge, Hunk and Lance fawn over her. She’s _much_ taller than him now. He kind of hates how much he likes it.

This isn’t the time for him to be struck senseless with his infatuation; they have a job to do, and he needs to have a clear head. He shakes himself and steps forward.

“I can’t let you go in there alone,” he says.

Shiro bites the inside of his cheek when she turns to narrow her eyes at him with displeasure. A thrill runs up his spine as he fights to stay composed under her gaze.

He is, without a doubt, royally screwed.

 

**2.**

 

Shiro has never been much of an avid reader, but something about the Altean library that he finds in the castle is endlessly intriguing to him.

There’s just so much knowledge in the room, so much that humankind could never even fathom. He has an endless well of information at his fingertips; how could he not be drawn to it?

He doesn’t like being idle. It gives him too much time to think. Thinking too much never leads anywhere good these days, and there’s only so much time he can spend working out on the training deck before his body begins to crumple with exhaustion; or coming up with battle plans with Allura before she frowns at him and insists he do something else before his brain becomes like that goo they're always eating. It’s proving very difficult to say no to her, especially when she’s right. It happens often.

So, he spends a lot of time in the library. The room is well lit and open, books lining all the walls and countless shelves in between. There’s a particular chair in one corner that he has taken a particular liking to, and he can often be found curled up there, normally with a book on Altean history. He doesn’t speak the language yet, of course, but Pidge was able to come up with a small handheld device that translates the words for him. Sometimes, he just looks at the images, but other times he actually wants to know what’s going on.

It’s one of those days where his mind is too cluttered and noisy, so he’s in the library looking for a book. He has his eyes on a book about Altean physiology, and he’s standing on his toes trying to reach it when a hand comes out of nowhere, plucks the book from the shelf and a voice speaks behind him, nearly startling him out of his skin.

“Here, I will get it for you,” Allura says, and Shiro takes pride in always being aware of his surroundings, so there really should be no reason for him to whip around and yelp in surprise.

And yet, that is exactly what happens.

“I'm sorry,” Allura says sheepishly. She’s looking down at him because she grew the couple required to reach the book, and of course, Shiro’s breath catches in his throat.

She really ought to start warning him before she does that.

“I did not intend to scare you,” Allura continues as she hands him the book. Shiro might be imagining it, but he thinks that there her cheeks might be faintly flushed, perhaps with embarrassment.

Shiro swallows thickly, and ignores the fact that his traitorous heart speeds up. If she's embarrassed, she's not the only one.

“It’s all right,” he says, taking the book from her. “Don’t worry about it. And thank you.”

She smiles at him. “You are welcome. It would have been rude of me to not help when you were struggling so much.”

Shiro laughs. “Yeah well, not all of us can make ourselves taller whenever it’s needed.”

She shrugs. “It is very convenient, I must say.”

“I’ll bet,” Shiro says lamely.

“A disadvantage you humans have, certainly,” Allura says. She leans forward to peer at the book she’d gotten down for him. Suddenly she’s close to him again and he momentarily forgets how to talk. “Altean physiology. Interesting choice.”

“All of the books in here are interesting,” Shiro says honestly. “Your people are amazing.”

Allura’s smile is a little sad and wistful, just like it always is whenever someone brings up Altea. Shiro feels bad for putting that expression on her face, wishes instantly that he could backpedal and not say anything about it at all, but she speaks before he can get a chance to apologize. “They were,” she agrees. “I am very proud to be an Altean.”

“As you should be.”

“You’re too kind,” she says politely. She hesitates, glances at him with something unreadable in her eyes. “Do you want to be alone?”

“Not especially,” Shiro says, hopefully not too quickly. He doesn’t want to be pathetically obvious about how much he’s enjoying having her company for these few brief moments.  

“Well,” she says slowly, “if you don’t mind, of course, we could read it together? I know you have Pidge’s little invention, but I could translate for you, if you’d like. I could use the distraction. And the company.”

Shiro tries to stifle the goofy smile that is threatening to break across his face. It’s not easy; he hopes the smile he gives her is inviting and friendly.

(He’s noticed that he smiles a lot more when he’s around Allura. He hopes it’s the same for her; he’s seen her looking sad far too often for his liking. He would like it if they were to give each other some kind of comfort. Shiro knows that that’s what she does for him, at least.

When he’s with her, he almost remembers what it was like back when smiling was easy and unforced. He’s grateful for that.)

His surprise at her wanting to spend time with him gives him a burst of courage. He reaches out, curls his fingers around her wrist, and starts leading her towards his favourite chair. She allows herself to be lead, and Shiro feels like his heart might burst.

“I’d be honoured,” he says.

 

**3.**

 

Shiro’s almost certain he has a few broken ribs, probably a minor concussion, and he knows that Galra weapon left a nasty burn on his thigh. He aches all over and his head hurts so much that he's a little bit worried about throwing up. The nausea is enough to make him spare a sympathetic thought for Hunk. 

Even so, as far as post battle injuries go, it’s not that bad. He’s had much, much worse and turned out all right.

So he figures he can be forgiven for the fact that the instant he steps out of his lion and he’s back on the ship, he doesn’t head for the medbay, but makes a beeline for the control room, where he knows Allura will be.

Adrenaline and the need to see her face spur him forward as he all but runs through the castle.

The team is safe. He made sure they were all accounted for and safely aboard the ship.

Now he needs to see her.

When he bursts into the room, she doesn’t even look up. Her eyes are glued to the control panel in front of her as Coran’s is running what looks like a diagnostics scan on the ship. Shiro knows they took a lot of damage; a lot of the screen is lit with red warning lights. He’s not surprised.

“Princess,” Shiro says, stepping into the room. “Is everything all right in here?”

She turns at the sound of his voice, and Shiro winces when he sees the angry gash that’s carved into the skin above her brow. It doesn’t look too bad, but he doesn’t like the idea of her being hurt in general.

Allura doesn’t speak. She looks at him from across the room for a long moment, and then she’s striding forward, her long legs eating up the distance between them. She’s still wearing a Galra uniform, so she’s still tall, and when she stops in front of him he has to tilt his face up to look at her.

“Allura?” He speaks quietly, a question woven into the syllables of her name. _Are you all right?_ he wants to ask.

She shakes her head sharply and steps forward. Her hands rise as she reaches up to his face, her movements slow and gentle as she presses her palms to the sides of his face, curls her fingers into the hair at the back of his neck. The caress of her hands sends a shiver up his spine, and he fights the urge to close his eyes and lean into her.

When she leans down and kisses him, there is a brief moment when he is immobilized with surprise. Coran is in the room and they haven’t exactly told anyone about the two of them yet, haven’t really discussed it a whole lot beyond the fact that they didn’t want to flaunt it just yet, but they were all right with the team finding out.

Shiro isn’t sure that kissing Allura with Coran right there is the most ideal way to announce their new and budding relationship, but then he becomes aware that Allura is _kissing him_ , her lips soft and gentle against his. The touch of her mouth on his own is urgent and sweet, and Shiro melts into it, reaching up to wrap his arms around her neck and leans into it.

“Hello,” she says when she pulls away from the kiss. Her cheeks are flushed beautifully with a faint pink. Shiro loves when she blushes. “I really wanted to do that,” she admits.

“I’m not complaining,” Shiro says, giving her a fleeting smile before going up on his toes to kiss her again.

**4.**

Shiro’s drifting in and out of consciousness when she finds him.

He doesn’t know how long he’s been laying there, but he knows it’s long enough for him to be concerned about his chances of survival. Everything is blurry and his abdomen is on fire; the makeshift bandage he's holding to his wound probably isn’t doing much to staunch the blood at this point. There is a _lot_ of blood.

By now, he should know better. He should know better than to be surprised when he’s in dire straights and Allura’s face appears over him, her eyes fierce and determined like she would set the whole place ablaze if she needed to.

He should know better, but he clearly doesn’t, because when he realizes it’s her, there’s a moment where he can’t figure out what’s happening. There’s no way that she could have found him. How did she find him?

“Allura,” he tries to say, but it comes out garbled and slurred. His tongue feels too thick in his mouth, his mind is too fuzzy. He can’t focus.

Shiro thinks she’s shushing him. There are lips pressed to his forehead and then he’s airborne. He panics for a second, but then he realizes he’s in Allura’s arms. She’s cradling him against her chest, holding him tightly as she makes her way through dark corridors.

Her voice is tight with worry. She’s alternating between telling him that she’s going to get him out of here, and hissing orders into the mouthpiece of her helmet.

He’s really far off the ground.

She’s really tall.

He’s going to have to remember to tell her to stop impersonating Galra soldiers to sneak onto their bases and save him. He’s not worth it.

She’s not going to listen to him.

He fades from consciousness then, the world turning into darkness as he’s carried to safety.

**5.**

Allura is Shiro’s favourite person to spar with.

Partly because he just likes spending time with her in general, whether they’re waking up together, tangled in bed sheets and kissing each other awake with soft kisses, or they’re taking swings at each other on the training deck.

If he’s being honest though, it’s mostly because he loves the challenge. He _cannot beat her_. None of them can.

To be fair, Allura has been trained to fight nearly as long as she’s been walking, and none of the team members have even a fraction of the skills that she does. She always looks so natural while she wipes the floor with them, dancing away from their blows with ease, her strikes lethal and precise. Her movements are fluid and graceful, and sometimes she can’t help but keep a small smirk off of her face when she’s doing particularly well evading her opponent’s blows. She always catches herself and replaces the smirk with a more professional, stern expression that she uses when addressing the paladins, but Shiro doesn't miss it. 

He loves seeing her like this, but it’s also just really good practice. After daily practice with her, once in a while he’s able to knock her off her feet or disorient her for a moment. He still usually ends up flat on his back a few moments later, with a victorious Allura grinning down at him.

Still. It’s progress, and he doesn’t mind losing to her.

What he does mind, though, is when she pulls something weird on him. Like the time that he moves to administer a blow that should easily knock her off her feet.

And she just… disappears.

Well, no, she doesn’t disappear.

He freezes when he realizes that she had simply shrunk to half of her actual height.

Well. _That’s_ new.  

Allura predictably takes advantage of his immobility, and tackles him with all the strength she has when she’s her normal size.

Shiro makes an undignified yelp when she knocks him neatly off of his feet, landing on top of him with both of his wrists caught in her hands. She’s back to her normal height now, hovering over him with that familiar smirk on her lips. She doesn't bother hiding it much when they're sparring alone, which Shiro likes a lot. 

He can't really admire it much at the moment though, because  _what on Earth just happened._

“Total K.O.,” she says gleefully, something she’d likely learned thanks to Lance’s lessons on Earth culture. It was always foreign and delightful when she uses Earth expressions or slang, and any other time, Shiro would laugh at it.

As it is, he’s just staring up at her dumbly with wide eyes.

“What just happened?” he asks. He probably sounds just as dazed as he feels.

“I defeated you,” she says simply. “You do know what K.O. means, correct? Lance told me it was a common phrase among earthlings.”

Shiro shakes his head jerkily. “No, no, I know what that means. It’s just. Did you just _shrink_?”

Her face lights with realization. “Ah, yes. You did not know that I could do that?”

“No,” Shiro croaks. “No, I did not.”

Allura tilts her head and gives him a confused smile. “Wouldn’t it be logical to assume that if I can make myself taller, I should be able to do the opposite?”

“I guess I never really thought about it.”

Allura’s grin widens. “You look like you just saw me grow a second head,” she says with delight. She releases one of his wrists to poke his cheek. “I shocked you.”

“Anyone would be surprised,” Shiro protests, but he’s smiling now too. It’s hard not to smile when Allura is radiant and joyous in his presence. It almost feels like it would be a crime not to allow himself to become a victim to her infectious smile. “It was _weird_.”

Allura shrugs, completely unconcerned. “Whatever it takes to win.”

She’s still smiling when she leans down and kisses him, and Shiro’s smile matches hers as their mouths meet.

**+1**

They’re pressed against the closed door, hands roaming over each other and their breaths heavy in each other’s ears. Shiro’s heart is thudding in his chest, so loudly that he wonders if Allura can hear it.

All he can hear is the soft, sweet sounds Allura is making as he kisses her deeply, his hands buried in her hair and the length of his body pressed against hers. His back is against the door—they just managed to make it into the room before they couldn’t resist touching each other again—and one of Allura’s thighs is pressed between his own. She’s so warm and solid against him.

She kisses like she does everything; with care and determination, as though kissing Shiro requires the same amount of laser focus as diving head first into a fleet of Galra ships. Shiro loves it; she’s like the sun and he is molten in her arms.

There’s something he’s been meaning to ask her, though, but he keeps getting distracted by her kisses.

However, he promised himself that he would ask her tonight.

“Allura,” he gasps when she releases his mouth and starts kissing a line down his throat. He groans, and his hips jerk involuntarily as he clings to her before he reminds himself to focus.

“Mmm?” she hums, too busy sucking a mark into his neck to answer.

“I want to ask you something.”

Allura drags her lips back up his throat until they’re face to face again. She kisses his mouth briefly before leaning back to look at him. “What is it?”

Shiro feels himself tense. He’s not exactly used to asking for things, but he knows Allura won’t mind, he just needs to say it out loud—

“Shiro?” Allura’s voice is soft, but she’s starting to frown a little bit. She brings one hand to his face, her fingers fitting perfectly over the curve of his cheek. “Are you unwell?”

“No.” Shiro shakes his head. “No, everything is fine.”

“What is it, then?” she asks. Despite Shiro’s assurances, the frown is still etched between her brows and she’s looking at him intently, her thumb gently stroking his cheek. The gesture is tender and reassuring, and Shiro wants to melt into her touch.

If he doesn’t say it now, he’ll regret it. He’s waited long enough.

“I just really like how strong you are,” he says, the words pouring out of his mouth on a single breath. He swallows—god, his throat is so dry—and tears his gaze away from her and fixes his eyes over her shoulder, away from her probing stare.

Allura is patient. He’s taking forever to get it all out, but she waits quietly as he sorts out his thoughts.

Eventually, he figures out how to say it.

“What I’m trying to say is,” he says, steeling himself, “I’m asking you if you can be bigger than me right now. I really like when you kiss me while you’re taller than me.”

Once it's out in the open, there’s a long, horrifying moment of silence while Shiro waits for Allura to speak.

“Shiro,” she says quietly, the hand that is cupping his cheek gently turning his face towards her. “Look at me, love.”

Shiro obliges, bracing himself for judgement. 

Instead, Shiro is relieved to find that she’s looking at him with a steady gaze, not a trace of judgement in her eyes. A bit of surprise, yes, but no judgement at all. “If you ever want anything, Shiro, you need only ask.”

Then, just like that, she’s growing before his eyes, until she’s just tall enough that Shiro would have to stand on his toes to kiss her.

Shiro inhales sharply.

“Don’t you want to know why?” he asks, incredulous. It’s not that he wants to explain why, but he thought that it might be a strange enough request that it would merit an explanation.

Allura drops her hands to his waist and winds her arms around him, tugging him in close. She presses a kiss to his cheek. “Only if you’d like to.”

Shiro is silent for a long moment before he speaks.

“I like feeling safe with you,” he admits. He thinks about all the times Allura has held him after he wakes from a nightmare, how much easier calming down was when he knew he wasn't alone. He couldn't feel alone when he was enveloped in her warmth. “I trust you.”

Allura kisses him. “Good,” she whispers.

Shiro breathes out a sigh of relief and sinks into her arms. Allura holds him tightly against her chest, her arms solid and gentle all at the same time. 

“You like it when I carry you too, don’t you?” 

Shiro hides his face in her shoulder. “I do.”

“May I carry you to my bed, then?”

Shiro nods, schooling his voice into something he hopes comes off as nonchalant. “I would love that.”

Allura kisses his cheek again, and then she’s bending down to hook her arm behind his knees, bracing her other arm across his back. In a moment, he’s swept off his feet and in her arms, one hand gripping around the back of her neck for stability.

He would be lying if he were to say that it didn’t make something stir deep in his core, or that it didn’t make him flushed with want. He could blame it on the kissing from earlier, but that would not be honest either.

When they fall into bed, Allura kisses him gently with a burning edge of desperation, and he doesn’t even try to stop himself from falling further. He’s accepted his fate and he falls with her, knowing that she'll catch him. 

**Author's Note:**

> Come join me on my [Voltron sideblog](http://queenalluraofaltea.tumblr.com), or my [main blog](http://pensversusswords.tumblr.com).


End file.
